Get organizedTips to motivateand ​​inspire you!

[OK Renee, here’s the organization part that you really wanted to hear.]

How do you keep the fridge tidy and make it easy to find things? Follow these steps.

Always start by de-cluttering: remove the excess. Do this by taking everything out of the fridge section by section, throwing out expired food or items you know you’ll never eat (condiments, unappealing leftovers), and cleaning the shelves as you go. A microfiber cloth with plain water or water and white vinegar works perfectly and won’t introduce toxic cleaners to the place where your food is stored.

Group like with like. Do this in terms of both use/type of item and size, so you can arrange the shelf heights to match the items. For example, put all salad dressings and tall condiments like soy sauce together in one door shelf and put short condiments like mustard, olives, and jam or jelly together in another.

As I mentioned last week, the fridge has some natural zones created by temperature variations that help you figure out where to store what. Raw meat goes on the cold bottom shelf, leftovers and ready-to-eat food goes on the consistent top shelf, produce goes in the crisper drawers (I like to use one for veggies and the other for salad greens), condiments (and butter) go on the doors. Experts say to store dairy and eggs on the bottom shelf, but I find it can get too cold (they form ice crystals) so I store these one shelf above.

Corral items into bins. Small plastic bins will help you group items in the main compartment of the fridge the same way that the small bin-style shelves on the doors do. I use these shallow drawer organizers and because they’re not deep it’s easy to see what’s in them and easy to take things out and put them away. You can use one bin for cheese, one for deli meats, one for yogurt, one for snacks, etc. The idea is to corral smaller items so they stay together and you know where they “live.” It’s also helpful to group items into zones: e.g. put all sandwich fixings in one place, breakfast items in another.

Think eye level for things you want your family (or yourself) to remember to eat soon. Stuff I want my family to grab, either because it’s healthy or because I don’t want it to go to waste, I put at their eye level so it’s the first thing they see. I also use this strategy to my advantage by storing things I don’t want my husband to eat (Don’t touch my homemade chocolate truffles!) low down in the fridge. He never sees it! This works for the pantry, too.

Next week, in the third installment of the Refrigerator Organization series we’ll tackle your freezer.

​Today’s tip is a request by my friend Renee. I’m going to break it into three tips, so be sure to check back here for the next two weeks to get your fridge in tip-top shape.

How do you organize the refrigerator?

It’s not so different from organizing other things like desk drawers and bookshelves. The tricky part is that the contents of the fridge are always shifting as you use things up and buy new things.

The first aspect we’ll tackle is temperature, which guides the basic layout of the fridge.

Even though you set it to the recommended 35-38°F, the temperature isn’t constant or consistent throughout the fridge. Here’s the breakdown:

The door is the warmest part. Every food-safety expert says not to store milk here, but I still do because my kids go through it quickly and it’s the most convenient spot. We’ve never had a problem with it spoiling and I would know because I have a very sensitive nose for spoiled milk! Other than that, the door is best used for condiments, juice, and butter (doesn’t need to be kept as cold as other dairy).

The temperature is most consistent on the upper shelves, so this is where to store foods that don’t need to be cooked (leftovers, ready-to-eat foods, berries, etc.).

The lower shelf is the coldest spot. This is where you store raw meat. My husband has also claimed half of the bottom shelf for beer.

Crisper drawers keep produce fresher by creating a moist atmosphere. Keep fruits and veggies separate. Better yet, keep fruit in an appealing bowl on the counter or table. It doesn’t need refrigeration, looks pretty, and you’ll remember to eat it. Now that the fruit drawer is free, use one crisper drawer for vegetables and one for salad greens.

The middle of the fridge is for everything else. (Check back next week for help with this.)

One big rule for the fridge is not to overcrowd it. The cold air needs to circulate to keep things fresh. Better to have to make another trip to the store later in the week than to have to throw out a whole bunch of spoiled food.

Next week, I’ll help you de-clutter the fridge and group items for convenience. Stay tuned!

Today's tip is super quick so you can get back to enjoying the day.​Click on this link to find out more about Martin Luther King Jr. Day and bookmark it to quickly and easily look up any holiday!https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/

Catalogs and magazines can be fun to browse through every now and then, but this innocent-seeming form of entertainment can have cluttering consequences for your home and your mind.

Here’s a list of reasons why I recommend reducing or eliminating your consumption of catalogs and magazines:

Simple: they pile up and create clutter. Toss them all into the recycling bin now to instantly tidy your home!

To-Do Guilt Build-Up: Are you saving magazines because someday you'll read that article, try that recipe, or make that DIY project? If you haven’t done it yet, it’s not going to happen and your life has been fine without it. Give yourself permission to toss the magazine and the guilt!

They are an inefficient way to store information. You have to page through each issue to find that thing you think you remember you saw in last October's issue...or was is September? In our digital age, read the print version for entertainment then find the articles or items you liked online and store them on a PInterest board.

They make you want to buy lots of shiny new stuff that you don’t need, filling up your home and emptying your bank account.

My top reason: discontent. Visions of perfection presented in catalogs and magazines can make us dissatisfied with our own perfectly imperfect lives. We can’t enjoy the beauty that we have because we are trying to measure up to a magazine editor’s ideal. We’ve heard lots of talk about this with respect to women’s body image, but I’m also talking about how you view your home and the things you do. We can’t all be Martha You-Know-Who, so stop looking to outside images and discover the joy of being content with where you are.

​This year, if you want to resolve to be more organized, you’ll need to start by resolving to get rid of the clutter. Stuff has no hope of staying organized and in its place when there’s just too much of it.

It’s a great visual motivator to help you pare down. Even if you don’t achieve the 2017-item challenge, it’s fun to try and you’ll be amazed to see how much you can de-clutter. If you have kids, let them have fun with it by using different colors to fill in the boxes.

The other tool you’ll need: a disposable box or bag placed near the door of your home that is designated for outgoing items.

Mark it “donate” and whenever you come across something you no longer need, want, or love, toss it into the bag (or into the trash, if it’s not worth donating).

When the bag is full, don’t delay! Put it right into your car and bring it to a donation center, preferably one that’s near your home or on your usual route so you’ll actually go there. Can’t make it to a donation center? Call any one of a number of charities that will schedule a pick up of donations (Salvation Army, Goodwill, Savers, etc.).